It's Easy to Hack Britain and We're Losing the E-War

A committee of MPs has taken a rather doom-laden stance on the UK's security position, claiming we're one of the world's top target for e-crime and we need to spend much, much more money on reporting and defending against it.

One of the big issues is that a lot of the smaller e-crimes are simply not reported, with cases of minor hacks and thefts not appearing on any crime databases. The Home Affairs Select Committee says it would like to see banks forced to report all cases of internet fraud to the police as a matter of course, with ISPs asked to educate users in the ways of online security.

The UK currently has 800 officers who specialise in internet crimes, with as many as a quarter of these said to be facing the axe due to budget cuts. The committee says some 1,300 criminal gangs are currently targeting the UK's internet users and infrastructure, so we ought to be spending more on specially trained police and defences. [BBC]